A Response to Oregon Health & Science University President Danny Jacobs
CONTENT WARNING: In support of trauma-informed communications, please be aware that this message contains topics that may be activating for survivors of gender violence.
My previous letter to Oregon Governor Kate Brown.
This letter will address OHSU’s reply:
- The identical language that is being used in response to the public outcry regarding the OHSU Anesthesiology Resident, ‘TikToc Doc’ Dr. Jason Campbell, who was not terminated, but allowed to resign.
- The lack of accountability that is present at OHSU and how it is incapable of being addressed through initiatives that the current leadership will create.
- The lack of integrity in the institutional actions performed by OHSU that have played out in the public sphere before the latest scandal, and remain unaddressed.
- How OHSU’s leadership, including a mandatory reporter, played a central role in the the survivor of sexual assault being revictimized, with Dr. Esther Choo telling the survivor via text: “I don’t need policing by white women.” This was after the survivor questioned Dr. Choo’s promotion of Dr. Campbell on Twitter when she had previously shared with Dr. Choo the details of her sexual harassment and assault at the hands of Dr. Campbell.
In attempting to address the furor over the clear mishandling of the Jason Campbell case, OHSU President Danny Jacobs stated in March 2021: “there must be keen and intentional action taken on sexual harassment and discrimination… [w]e are committed to this review…” This sounds eerily familiar to the OHSU response to sexual misconduct in 2017, where OHSU stated: “We have no tolerance for discrimination, and intend to take a deep dive to come up with initiatives to address these problems.”
While certain aspects of the ‘TikToc Doc’ case must play out in court, a careful analysis of OHSU’s promotion of a central figure in this case (Dr. Esther Choo) before the latest scandal shows that there is a much bigger institutional issue that OHSU is refusing to acknowledge, and are incapable of addressing themselves.
In 2019, Dr. Esther Choo, who has since been promoted to full professor by OHSU in 2020, tweeted: “White people can be exhausting. Just an observation.”[1]
Targeting a group of people based on their race is wrong and bigoted.
This issue is concerning for all Oregonians because Dr. Choo is an emergency room physician. The emergency room serves as the first line of care for many patients, any bias showed to patients at that time can critically affect their outcomes. Doctors who publicly display bigotry have no place at a teaching institution, much less an emergency room.
OHSU responded to this controversy by saying: “Because this statement was made on Dr. Choo’s personal Twitter account and she does not purport to represent the views of OHSU, this communication does not violate any OHSU policy or prohibition.”[2]
At the very least they could have said, in what was a very weak initial statement to the latest controversy “OHSU does not condone [this] behavior.” Instead of censuring Dr. Choo, they subsequently promoted her to full professorship. These are not the actions of leadership that show wisdom or integrity. This response from OHSU as an institution further embolden her so much so that she told the survivor of sexual harassment in the latest controversy via text: “I don’t need policing by white women.” [3]
This was said after the survivor questioned why Dr. Choo was still promoting Dr. Campbell on Twitter a month after being told of her sexual assault. That day Dr. Choo had tagged Jason Campbell as her friend with a “big following and big heart”:
It is not hard to see how OHSU’s failure to acknowledge this problematic behavior played into the current controversy regarding the ‘TikTok Doc.’ Dr. Choo was placed in a position of trust within OHSU as a mandatory reporter and did not do her duty. Whether this was due to a thirst for fame or a dismissal of the victim based on her race, it does not matter — it was wrong. OHSU addresses none of this in their current statement.
In Oregon we should expect people to be treated equally and with respect no matter their race, ethnicity, or creed — OHSU in their non-response to the Twitter post basically said it is fine to be bigoted on your personal account: as long as you are popular, you will even be promoted into leadership. Just like OHSU seems to have tacitly condoned sexual harassment with Dr. Jason Campbell, because of his social media following. If this scandal had not blown up it is easy to see how OHSU may have wanted to give Dr. Campbell a professorship. Are these the type of people we want determining the care we receive, and raising the next generation of medical professionals? OHSU knew who Dr. Choo was when they promoted her; Dr. Choo knew who Dr. Jason Campbell was when she promoted him.
Portland so badly wants to pretend that the rest of Oregon does not exist. Allowing bigotry or racism from faculty and promoting them because of Oregon’s reputation is not the answer. OHSU needs to take a principled stand against bigotry and sexual misconduct of all kinds, and has quite publicly failed to do this. Do any of us truly believe that there was not a phone call between leadership at OHSU and the University of Florida before Dr. Jason Campbell was accepted as a resident at UF? While OHSU is claiming “we did indeed inform the institution (UF) that Dr. Jason Campbell violated OHSU’s sexual harassment policy” this cannot be the full story. We all look forward to discovery in this case, and given the track record of the leadership at OHSU — fully expect them to perjure themselves because the reality of what happened is so damming when exposed to scrutiny.
OHSU gave and is continuing to give Dr. Choo a platform, as recently as March 9th, 2021, Dr. Choo billed herself as an “Associate Professor in the Center for Policy and Research in Emergency Medicine, Oregon Health & Science University, and Founding Member for TIME’SUP Healthcare, Dr. Esther Choo is known as a bold and innovative voice on gender and racial equity in healthcare…” This statement would be laughable if it did not include OHSU, a place that is as President Danny Jacobs says is going to take: “keen and intentional action… (on) discrimination in our community.” They refused to take it in 2019 when there was justifiable public outcry over Dr. Choo’s tweets, why should this time be any different? Why is OHSU institutionally condoning someone who is obviously a bad actor? Why do they let her use their name in her continued and shameless self promotion? There is a reason founding members of TIME’SUP Healthcare have resigned en masse. [4]
Commitment to change is not enough, people - specifically leadership - need to be held accountable for these failings.
Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. We should not take OHSU leadership at their word because they fooled us last time.
Here is an image on the front page of OHSU’s website, which will either make you laugh or cry depending on your level of cynicism:
[1] https://www.academia.org/oregon-doctor-tweets-that-white-people-can-be-exhausting/
[2] https://twitter.com/OHSUNews/status/1142213502049718272
[3] https://www.scribd.com/document/496445788/Jason-Campbell-TikTok-Doc-Civil-Compalint
[4] https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/times-up-healthcare-controversy
